The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1887-04-07
SOLDIERS SUPERSTITIONS.
Charms That Were Thought Eiiicacious
Against the bullets of the Enemy.

Against the Bullets of the Enemy.
As TO whether the confederate sol
dier was any more superstitious than
the federal | neither admit nor deny,
but think the same superstiti0ns in
regard to battle probably prevailed to
an equal extent on both sides. We may
laugh at them now, but we once ac-
cepted and pinned our faith to them.
The first instance to come under my
observation was at Gaines Mill. | was
then serving with an Alabama regi-
ment, and on the morning of the day
on which we were making our coffee at
the early camp fire | heard a sort Of
groan from a comrade. and as / turn
ed to look at him l noticed that he was
staring into his coflee-pot with some
thing like terror, while his face was
deathly pale.
What is it?" | asked.
Il shall be killed to-day" he groan-
ed out.
Fudge! We don't know that even
a single musket will be fired.
Il dreamed last night" he whisper
ed, '.that | looked down upon a sheet
| of water whose surface was covered
| with bubbles, and amid them | saw my
| own dead face. | shall be shot before
night.
/ ridiculed the idea and brought up
others to assist me, but the only reply
to our railery was a sad shake of the
| head He was believer in dreams,
| and he certainly felt that his last day
had come. In place of eating his
| breakfast he scribbled off a letter to
| his mother and intrusted it to com
| rade. In little time we got the order
| to march, and before noon my regi-
| ment was thrown forward to uncover
| a portion Of the federal line. The first
| missile sent to Us was Il solid shot from
| field piece, and it struck the young
I soldier in the chest and cut him fairly
in two without injuring another man.
| Not another man was even wounded
| for the next ten minutes. The night
! before Burnside crossed at FrederickS-
| burg a second lieutenant in a Virginia
| regiment received, with hundreds OF
| others, some mail from the regimentai
bag. | carried the pack of twenty OF
thirty letters over the officers quarters
and handed it to this lieutenant. The
| top letter was for him, and on one of
| the letters was a red stain. 1t looked
like blood, but was probably ink. He
| no sooner saw it than he became great
! ly affected, and said:
81 shall be the first officer out of the
/ regiment killed to-mOrrOw!'
| baapI a,v.r, ,tfi,.Y,s nj -, n
! him, but he became silent and serious,
and finally walked away by himself.
We were down on the right, where the
| first federal attack was made. Ou
regiment was using long and deep
land fuIrow as rihe-pit, and the at
vancing line of blue had just come
! within range when bullet struck the
! lieutenant in the head, killing him in
! stantly. 1t came from the front and
was probably from some sharpshooter,
I hrt it was afterward agreed that the
officer who was killed was, perhaps,
the least exposed of any.
There was superstition in my regi-
! meut that any one who went into bat
tie with the foot OF rabbit tied around
his neck was safe. This was all right
! and rabbits feet were at a high premi-
um for two or three weeks. Ny brig
ade was then pushed ahead on recon
naissance, bumped up against the
| Ganks, and we not only got severely
thrashed, but we lost good many
men. Out of the seventy men in my
company [ presume that thirty had the
talismN. 1t SO happened that the
three killed belonged to this lucky set,
and next day rabbits feet took a de-
cIded fall in price.
! was for a time a brigadier's order.
ly. His supposition was that he would
be safe from bullets as long as he rode
chestnut horse. In the first battle
/ into which | followed him his chestnut
was shot, and, of course, hustled to
/ bring him up another. Mine was a
/ coal black, and the only one which l
( could get for him was roam. He didn' t
/ seem 10 notice the difference until the
action was over, and then | got a terri
BILE rating. In the second battle he
| had a chestnut, and even before our
line came under fire a bullet crippled
the horse and another hit my super
stitious general in the thigh and left
him to limp through life on short
leg. / personally knew other officers
who felt safe on roans, bays, blacks,
and even whites, but they sooner or
later discovered that they had pinned
their faith to rule which had eXcep-
tons.
remember that just before Grant
attacked Lee in the Wilderness, and
while | was at brigade headquarters, a
hen, of which there was a large flock
about the yard, scratched up steel
button. A sergeant of cavalry at once
dismounted and secured it, and when
asked what use he could put it to he
replied:
Il will drop it into the ear of my
tie. and no harm will come to either OF
them"
'ut what fetish can there be in a
stet. nutton?''
''Oh, it isn't so much in the button
as in the hen scratching it up before
my eyes"
But why not try it in your own
horses ear and take care OF yourself?'
ITO be lucky it must be given to
somebody else"
l laughed at him and he got so mad
that we nearly came to blows. l met
him a week later, having a saber cut
on his head, and asked him how the
fetish worked.
''Must have been a growing hen
| which scratched il M he replied.
The colonel and twenty Of our men
We're killed the day after | saw you.
Detroit Free Press.
1t is a binding snow-storm. The
cold wind sweeps the icy particles
along with pitiless fury. The people
whom you meet are mutfled to the eyes
in wraps and furs. All, here comes a
young man. He is clad in a suit of
/ r1ala trrav with. a littIa Hack pbaaE